Wash your hands. They washed? Okay.
Chances are good that you, like an astonishingly high percentage of the global population, are in the middle of an unprecedented lockdown, or quarantine, or shelter in place. It’s a wild time to be alive. It’s a wild time to try and get ahold of groceries.
Me and mine are doing okay, given the circumstances, although we are unable to build a fortress of toilet paper to barricade the front door. Thankfully no Mad Max style raiders are prowling the streets – just very kind and overstretched postal workers and delivery types.
Things do suck right about now, but, for a given value of okay, things are okay. The global picture will look increasingly scary, there will be a lot of personal tragedies, but people will still be people – pro-social with far more kindness for strangers than we could ever realize.
In the meanwhile? I’m still working. It will not surprise you to hear that putting my mind into imaginary places is very difficult, when there is so much to worry about in a very not-imaginary world around me, but I’m cranking along. Recently I finished the skeleton of my outline – and am now starting to add meat onto the bones. Subplots, character moments, extra bits of low level world building, and so on.
To keep on top of the pandemic anxiety, I am keeping in mind that even though some very scary numbers are likely to be coming up soon – I mean, they’re turning the local comic con venue into a 4000 bed emergency hospital –those numbers will be so much lower than what they could have been, if people weren’t taking action and being aware of this mess. I am keeping in mind that these scary things are a thing that will fatigue – because fear makes us pay attention, and paying attention tires us out.
I am reminding myself that the world is a big place, and worrying about the whole world isn’t going to help, because I can’t solve the whole world’s problems. I can wash my hands, I can keep the front door shut, I can make sure there’s a few frozen meals on hand.
One way to put that is that I can fight the fire on my doorstep. And I – and a lot of you – need to remember that by fighting the fire on our doorsteps, we contribute to keeping everyone around us safe.
So, I hope you all have a month you can bring a lot of safety to, a month that brings good among the upcoming difficulties, and, as always, thank you for your support.
